Ron Paul's iconoclasm and awkward determination get ambushed by CNN video archive. The newsletter Ron Paul makes reference to in August of 1988 is an execrable mish-mash of textbook phobias about Jews, homosexuals, and non-whites, and there are specific slanders against Dr. Martin Luther King and Bill Clinton, a stew of bile and dimwitted obsession about race and sex. Ron Paul asserts that, "I didn't read them at the time, and I disavow them." Will this blanket denial stand up to the attack gotcha from CNN and so forth? Unlikely, since the repetition of the facts of the pamphlet is the damage. (The pamphlet asserts that the 1993 WTC attack was "a set-up by the Israeli Mossad." And that is one of the more intellectual delusions.) These old videos on YouTube remind that the tools of the trade these days include everything politicians have ever said on video anywhere. What Iowa looks like is the last man standing from the gamut of the usual oppo feeding the usual reporter class.
Remember, it's not slander if it's true.
But even if it is true, it's insensitive to notice!
Speaking of which, science journalist Nicholas Wade wrote in his book Before the Dawn that Ashkenazi Jews are smarter than other people because they have bigger brains.
I wonder if Mr. Batchelor regards Wade as a racist crank for what he wrote. My assumption is that he does not, since he has had him on his show on multiple occasions.
Still, if the same crowd now ganging up on Ron Paul because of those newsletters wanted to attack Mr. Batchelor for his interviews with Wade, I suppose that he would also be vulnerable.
Incidentally, all the stuff about the newsletters isn't exactly hot off the presses, considering that it came out in the '08 campaign as well. Since Paul is doing rather better this time around than he did four years ago, I have no reason to think that these recycled smears will do him much harm.
On the other hand, Ron Paul is the only one of the current crop of Republican contenders who isn't a cretin or a sociopath, and so his chances of becoming the GOP nominee are slim at best. We must be realistic, after all.
Ignore electability. Who would best advance YOUR aims/policies/principles as (1) Prez; (2) VP; (3) Sect of State; (4) House Speaker; and (5) Senate Majority Leader.
Same questions, but add electability/confirmability. Which five people in those positions will best advance YOUR aims/policies/principles?
Regardless of how one feels about Ron Paul . . . his rise should shock the political class to it's core. They are pushing the American people too hard and too fast. "Obamacare" was a shock to the body politic. If it falls in June of 2012, then Obama will have yet another issue to run on to motivate his base.
There are days this "rubics cube of politics" makes me want to reach for a metaphorical slotted screw driver and just be done with it.
But that would be cheating . . .
:)
Less than shrewd policy conversation by Dr. Paul, more a C- on the Wahhabi Summer School Seminar on how to figure the MidEast.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/12/26/not_anti-semitic_just_anti-israel.html
Not Anti-Semitic, Just Anti-Israel
Eric Dondero writes that his former boss Ron Paul is absolutely not an anti-Semite, as some have suggested.
"He is however, most certainly Anti-Israel, and Anti-Israeli in general. He wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all. He expressed this to me numerous times in our private conversations. His view is that Israel is more trouble than it is worth, specifically to the America taxpayer. He sides with the Palestinians, and supports their calls for the abolishment of the Jewish state, and the return of Israel, all of it, to the Arabs."
"his rise should shock the political class to it's core."
Why? He's not got a snowball's chance in hell of getting the nomination. He's a persistent flake, the Ralph Nader of the right.
"He wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all."
Well, I've had my moments, when I muse that without Israel, all those Jews would be over here, working hard to strengthen America with their ingenuity and their dedication to hard work and their talent for making money out of nothing at all. America is the only safe place for Jews to live. I just wish they weren't so devoted to one party.
I had meant to answer your excellent questions when you asked them before, but the press of time prevented my doing so before they disappeared into cyberspace.
At the moment, I plan to sleep the clock 'round. When I have recharged my batteries, you will get your reply.
Later.
'Tis the season when batteries are easily, often discharged. Looking forward to your choices and, of course, the caveats that apply given the long election season dynamics. Cheers.